B.F. Meek's silver "repeater" or bell click reel

[meekfan]

According to Henshall's Evolution of the Kentucky Reel of 1900, B.F. Meek made a sterling silver reel for a New Orleans artist around 1846. Henshall exhibited this reel among others at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The most fascinating feature of this reel is that a chime ringing mechanism was hidden within the tailplate cover, this mechanism bearing close resemblance to those found in repeater or chiming watches of the day. One of the images published by Henshall shows a gear which activated hammers to strike two chime or gong rods of different lengths tuned to two different notes. Unfortunately the extra gearing caused extra friction making it poorly suited for casting. Does this reel still exist in a collection somewhere?

I recently made a new tailplate for a no. 5 size brass Kentucky reel made by Nick Hadden Jr. for Howard Fortune in the 1990s. Nick's plan was to make this repeater chiming mechanism for the click as in the Meek reel above. Unfortunately all but this chiming mechanism was finished when Nick passed away. What an incredible reel it could have been! Anyone up to the challenge?

[meekfan]

Somehow the attachments weren't attached.

[kyreels]

Image posting instructions are in the forum sticky posts. viewtopic.php?t=15596. You must upload the images first, then click the image tag to insert in your post. You can use the Preview button instead of post to preview the post to see if the images are properly inserted.

This is interesting, hope you post some photos.

[meekfan]

Trying again to post the images which include an excerpt from the Henshall article and a drawing of the bell click mechanism. There is some confusion in the description of an epicycloidal gear mechanism which would not convert reciprocal motion into circular motion as stated. The last photo is the no. 5 size Nick Hadden Jr. reel discussed above. Nick was certainly capable of making the repeater-style chiming click mechanism; he used spiral gearing in this reel, perhaps to reduce the friction problems of Meek's reel(?).

[kyreels]

I am not aware of any reels in solid silver with gold wash controls that B.F. Meek advertised as presentation models that exist in collections. I do own a german silver B.F. Meek with gold wash controls. The presentation reels were produced. The reel presented to President Chester Arthur at the Southern Exposition in 1883 by the Louisville Fishing Club was a solid silver presentation reel. The location of these reels and the Henshall world fair reels is not known, but has been subject to several articles and guesses.

I am unclear on whether you are saying that Nick Hadden made part of the bell mechanism, or just the number 5 brass reel. I am also unaware of any Meek reel that exists with the experimental epicycloidal gears. 1846 would have been in the years where the reels were marked J.F. & B.F. Meek. It would be a good discovery to see anything that was linked to that reel.

[Steve]

The design could have inspired the creation of the American Reel Co. reel, whose patent included a bell alarm. What was probably the earliest version of the reel had planetary gears. (https://www.antiquefishingreels.info/Ar ... ReelCo.pdf, see Addendum)

[john elder]

Would be fun to give it a go! PM or email me if you wish to pursue it!

John

[meekfan]

Thanks for your replies--very interesting. Nick Hadden didn't make the bell mechanism and the reel was never finished. But the spool shaft and pillars are extra long and extend beyond an "inner tail plate" (not sure of my terms here). He told Howard he was going to make a bell click for it similar to the one described by Henshall. It is obvious that a secondary housing was going to be attached to this plate. The shaft has a flat machined on its end which presumably would have held a gear which actuated the chiming mechanism.

[kyreels]

One thing I am missing here is whether there is something unique in the bell mechanism that would require a planetary gear or epicycloidal gear (are they synonyms or some differences?). Is it that the planetary gear would provide more revolutions to enable the bell mechanism and the more conventional spiral multiplying gear system would have less revolutions to chime the bell?

[meekfan]

I'm also not sure why a planetary/epicyloidal gear arrangement would be necessary, although it would be possible to get a higher gear ratio with a ring gear close to the i.d. of the end cap/plate and a small pinion. The ratio would be the i.d. of the ring gear: diameter of the pinion. But I can't see any complex gearing like this in the drawings in Henshall's article. They are also dark, low resolution, and difficult to read in the pdf I have. Does anyone have a better or original copy with clearer drawings that could be scanned and enlarged?

[john elder]

Trying to understand the drawing: so, you can see that the center gear, which would be mounted on the spool, is loading one “mallet”, while the other is making a strike on opposite wire:


But what are these? They both appear to be affixed to the shorter wire:



Maybe its something in the background that’s not employed, but i’m not seeing it

[kyreels]

They appear to be weighted pendulums, but I did not sleep in a Holiday Inn Express recently. Here is an idea https://awci.memberclicks.net/find-a-professional.

[Steve]

The bell alarm is activated by a wheel with 5 teeth that alternately trips the bell hammers. The wheel can be rotated by any appropriate gear train.
Henshall's diagrams:

It is possible to drive,say, the intermediate gear with a reciprocating rod, thereby converting reciprocating motion to circular motion (or vice-versa). Henshall's diagram suggests something of the sort.

[meekfan]

Thanks for the much clearer drawings from the Henshall article, although I still can't make out any epicyloidal gearing or understand why they would be needed. I think we could learn more by studying repeater pocket watches which is probably where Meek got his ideas for this. Should make an interesting project to recreate the mechanism as Nick Hadden Jr. had intended.

[Steve]

In an 1824 letter to The Glasgow Mechanics' Magazine, William Cooper, a clockmaker. claimed he had made a pirn using annular gears around 1809.

[meekfan]

James Watt also used them in his first steam engine because someone else had patented the simple crank. I collect stirling engines of all things, and here's one of my fans that uses a ring gear and pinion: https://youtu.be/50AeuE_dcE4?si=poS-tTEIui5qDNRr. I'm still unclear about how this is applied in the Meek reel or even if it's necessary.

[Steve]

Cute fan! Here's the rod that converts reciprocal to circular motion.


Here are drawings of planetary gear trains by da Vinci, ca. 1495.

[meekfan]

Yes, but unnecessary in this case. Here's another one from the same co. with ordinary spur gears and about the same gear ratio: https://youtu.be/bVDZGE76fMc?si=0Ew3XS_He0RI9A6z . Since Meek's epicycloidal gearing didn't work well I guess it's best not to repeat it.